A maturing English cheddar cheese that has attracted a devoted worldwide following on the Internet showed its patriotic colours on Friday ahead of England's World Cup quarter-final against Australia. Dubbed Wedginald by its many admirers, the cheese appeared on screen on Friday with an England rugby ball perched on top. Since it first appeared on the www.cheddarvision.tv Web site in late December last year the cheese — which simply matures on screen in real time — has attracted 1.6 million hits.

Great. With the success of The Office, network executives are going to steal the ideas of any popular British shows and slap them on the pictocube. Get ready to stare at a wheel of cheese age an for an hour every week. Oh well, at least it will be better than K-Ville. (Oh yeah, England beat the Wallabies.) -KD